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also not sure if you;re aware that this species is VERY difficult to photograph cos they are blakc and white. its very hard indeed to try and expose this right cos the dynamic range in the bird alone is like 12 stops. tough assignment for a brand new lens !

dude i was just so excited i got the lens that i was barely dressed for the occasion LOL!
i was shivering my ass off at that 6 degrees windy cold park!
too bad there is nothing colourful to take pics of yet.

Ideal shooting

Elisha,

Let the lens do more of the work for you. It can!

Try to avoid making the camera overwork to save the shot. Limit yourself to nothing more than 400, especially outside. It'll help with your spectrum and reduce noise. In fact, for the next week or two, try to avoid post processing any of the subjects you take, so you are FORCED to take a better original image. You are way ahead of the curve with the α700 backing up the lens, as it is.

SInce you are basically "experimenting" with the lens, at this point ... work the shutter speed and see what delivers a better shot. You should be able to shoot the park stuff at 1/30th, during a cloudy day, with 'SSS' doing its job, unless your subject is moving. I suspect the swans/geese are not moving exceptionally fast. Let Nature give you the latitude you can tolerate with these shots and not worry about getting a super fast snap. Faster birds require cranking the speed up, but usually NOT the bigger ones.

In the fiilm days, ASA (ISO) adjustment was not available.. Photographers had to struggle with shutter and aperture to get these shots. You can learn a lot about using your camera if you mentally limit yourself with your three basic variables. You might also throw the α700 into D-R+ Lvl5 just for fun to see if you can pull out different contrast levels. That is another control that gets ignored ... but save that for later, when you have exercised the basic settings a bit.

Just in case I didn't mention this before: You need to let the lens work. It can!

Last edited by DonSchap; 04-22-2009 at 07:58 AM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

RAW takes a lot more time to manipulate ... and I've been letting my camera do JPEGs ... for speed and efficiency, with my recent remote birding shots. If all you are doing is posting to the web, RAW seems to be an unnecessary "overkill."

For your experimental shots, you might flip over to "Extra Fine" JPEG and shoot the same image ... adjusting for WB, of course, and see what you get. You just might be surprised. It should speed up your results and you can concentrate on your composition and imaging, rather than post processing for a little bit. Let the α700 do some of the "heavy-lifting" while you are educating yourself.

In other words, I suggest you reduce your workload until you are comfortable with what the lens is giving you ... then switch back and resume PP adjustment.

If you decide to shoot RAW+ JPEG or CRAW + JPEG, your JPEG image will only be "Fine" ... not "X. Fine"

Last edited by DonSchap; 04-22-2009 at 09:44 AM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

Some of the older RAW processors cannot do cRAW, so that's probably the deal-breaker. cRAW, like RAW, is supposed to be a non-destructive capture, unlike JPEG ... just better compression. I suggest that if you are memory strapped, buy a bigger CF/Memory Stick. Personally, I use both a 32GB CF card and a 8GB Memory Stick Pro module and it has never been a problem.

Last edited by DonSchap; 04-22-2009 at 09:50 AM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi